mağaza Noun
Looks like magazine Really means a shop, a store
To say magazine (periodical) in Azerbaijani, use jurnal.
Some Azerbaijani words look like an English word you already know, then mean something completely different. Here are 14 of the most common traps, each with the English word it resembles, what it really means, and how to say the English sense instead.
False friends in Azerbaijani are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, mağaza means a shop, not magazine, and aktual means current, not actual. This free guide lists 14 real Azerbaijani false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 14 Azerbaijani false friends.
Looks like magazine Really means a shop, a store
To say magazine (periodical) in Azerbaijani, use jurnal.
Looks like actual Really means current, topical, relevant right now
To say actual (real, not imagined) in Azerbaijani, use həqiqi.
Looks like family Really means surname, last name
To say family (relatives, household) in Azerbaijani, use ailə.
Looks like prospect Really means an avenue, a wide boulevard
To say prospect (a possibility or chance) in Azerbaijani, use perspektiv.
Looks like brilliant Really means a cut diamond (the gemstone)
To say brilliant (excellent, very bright) in Azerbaijani, use əla or parlaq.
Looks like costume Really means a business suit (jacket and trousers or a skirt)
To say costume (a fancy dress outfit) in Azerbaijani, use maskarad geyimi.
Looks like tort Really means a cake (a sweet layered dessert)
To say tort (a civil wrong in law) in Azerbaijani, lawyers use delikt.
Looks like preservative Really means a condom
To say preservative (a food additive) in Azerbaijani, use qoruyucu.
Looks like repetition Really means a rehearsal, a practice run before a performance
To say repetition (repeating something) in Azerbaijani, use təkrar.
Looks like decade Really means a period of ten days, not ten years
To say decade (ten years) in Azerbaijani, use onillik.
Looks like gymnasium Really means an academic secondary school
To say gymnasium (a place to exercise) in Azerbaijani, use idman zalı.
Looks like sympathy Really means liking, fondness, or attraction toward someone
To say sympathy (compassion for someone's suffering) in Azerbaijani, use həmdərdlik.
Looks like action Really means a promotional sale or discount campaign, or a protest demonstration
To say action (the act of doing something) in Azerbaijani, use hərəkət.
Looks like mode Really means fashion, style, trend
To say mode (a way of doing something) in Azerbaijani, use rejim.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Azerbaijani with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, so the true meaning attaches to the story instead of the English lookalike. Save the tricky words and review them later. Free to start.
A false friend is a word that looks or sounds like a word in your language but carries a different meaning. English and Azerbaijani overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Azerbaijani mağaza still reads like "magazine" to an English eye even though it means "a shop, a store".
These slips are common because your brain rewards the shortcut: a familiar-looking word feels safe, so you skip the check. That is fine until mağaza or aktual changes the meaning of a whole sentence. Recognizing the pattern is half the fix. Knowing the handful of high-frequency offenders on this page is the other half.
The durable fix is not memorization but exposure in context. When you read Azerbaijani and see one of these words doing its real job in a sentence, with a translation a tap away, the correct meaning wins. That is exactly what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
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False friends are Azerbaijani words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like mağaza, which looks like "magazine" but means "a shop, a store". They exist because both languages inherited or borrowed from shared roots that then drifted apart. The fix is meeting them in real sentences until the true meaning sticks.
No. Azerbaijani mağaza actually means a shop, a store, not magazine. To say magazine (periodical) in Azerbaijani, use jurnal. This is one of the most common Azerbaijani false friends for English speakers, so it is worth learning early.
Memorizing a list helps for a day; context makes it permanent. When you meet Azerbaijani words like mağaza and moda inside real sentences, with the translation one tap away, the correct meaning attaches to the situation instead of to the English lookalike. That is how reading in Lingo7 trains them out of you.
Yes. Azerbaijani and English share a large amount of vocabulary through Latin, French, and centuries of borrowing, and that overlap is exactly what breeds false friends. This page covers 14 of the most common ones, from mağaza (looks like magazine) to moda (looks like mode). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.